[kill_9]

1.4 billion gone and RIM has absolutely nothing to show for it.

Actually Research In Motion has a lot to show for the CAD/USD1.4 billion dollar expenditure...

1. Share price below CAD/USD20.00
2. Late delivery of the BBOS 7.0 smartphones
3. Tablet incomplete at release and still a work-in-progress - allegedly
4. Rising anger from the loyal BlackBerry users
5. And last but not least - broken promises

If I had the money I would buy Research In (Reverse) Motion, take the company private, fire the entire management team from CEO all the way down to team leads, and hire people who want the BlackBerry brand to flourish for the next millennium. For Mike and Jim the sun is setting. let's hope they do not take Research In Motion and more importantly BlackBerry with them into retirement.

[Economist101]

They have given us something new. The Playbook. Some ignorant people may laugh but NOBODY has an operating system like this. And no the Playbook is not going to be discontinued because it IS the new platform all the new phones will run on. They are using it to test and develop the new OS.

Then why not just say this? Why tell people they're getting a full-on product, when in fact it's a testbed?

For Apple or Android to switch to a true multitasking OS is almost an insurmountable task. They have to chuck everything and start over......get it.

That's great, but RIM hasn't turned it's "true multitasking OS" into profit; in fact the PlayBook has RIM's slimmest margin by far (if it is profitable at all). Meanwhile, BB phones return healthy margins, better than most every Android vendor (except maybe HTC).

[Ghostnyc]

Agreed!

People may want to take the knee-**** reaction and say, "Hey, where's the end result products that came from all this spending?" But that just shows they have no idea what RIM has been trying to do these last few years, even if it wasn't executed the well. They're almost there though.

Really the birth of BBX has given RIM some massive labour pains. The cost alone is one of them.

I wouldn't say its knee **** reaction, its reasonable to want to know where this money went considering that the execution & implementation of several of RIM's latest endeavors was less than spectacular.

I've said this in several other threads, the real problem that RIM is having is leadership. They have the capital, resources & talent to make a great comeback. The shareholders need to have the CEO's removed. The corporate culture they have created can not lead RIM out of this slump. You have admit that when you watch Lazaridis speaking at any recent event, he does NOT leave you inspired, hopeful, interested or excited about RIM's future.

On a side note- the companies they have acquired can contribute greatly to their success.

Can anyone list out their acquisition & their impact on Blackberry? Where can the contributions of all these acquisitions been seen & experienced?

[SharpieFiend]

There are many reasons why R&D spending is high and there are many reasons why products are delayed --- some don't overlap.

BB7 handsets were delayed because RIM initially stuck with Marvell --- but Marvell couldn't really deliver their CPU's with the new core (like Qualcomm, Marvell makes their own core and not use the Cortex A8/A9 cores). Then RIM went with Qualcomm chips and had to start all over again.

This is incorrect.

Both Qualcomm and Marvell license ARM technology and modify it to suit their needs. The Snapdragon, for example, is based on the A9 core, but is more optimized and has higher performance then what ARM originally designed. The upcoming Krait line from Qualcomm is based on the ARM A15 core, which offers the performance of Intel Core2 processors in a tablet friendly package.

Marvell is a little different, instead of making high-performance products they specialize in making products that are exceptionally cheap - think 75% of the performance at 1/3 of the cost of the competitors. This is what RIM originally chose and was left flatfooted when the industry standardized on the Snapdragon platform and blew past them in performance. Marvell is slightly different than Qualcomm as it also makes products based on MIPS cores, but these products are exceptionally cheap and are used in embedded systems where cost is the major factor (think things like toys, home appliances, etc).

[samab]

This is incorrect.

Both Qualcomm and Marvell license ARM technology and modify it to suit their needs. The Snapdragon, for example, is based on the A9 core, but is more optimized and has higher performance then what ARM originally designed. The upcoming Krait line from Qualcomm is based on the ARM A15 core, which offers the performance of Intel Core2 processors in a tablet friendly package.

Marvell is a little different, instead of making high-performance products they specialize in making products that are exceptionally cheap - think 75% of the performance at 1/3 of the cost of the competitors. This is what RIM originally chose and was left flatfooted when the industry standardized on the Snapdragon platform and blew past them in performance. Marvell is slightly different than Qualcomm as it also makes products based on MIPS cores, but these products are exceptionally cheap and are used in embedded systems where cost is the major factor (think things like toys, home appliances, etc).

You are completely wrong.

Marvell and Qualcomm are both ARM architecture licensees. They make ARMv7 compatible CPU's --- like AMD making x86 compatible CPU's --- which means they use NONE of the components from ARM. When you buy an AMD CPU, it contains NONE of the Intel components.

Marvell makes a lot of other CPU's --- for hard drives and routers --- and those are made usually from MIPS cores because those devices don't have to be concerned about battery life. Those CPU's have NOTHING to do with their Marvell's ARM-based CPU's for PDA/handsets/tablets. Marvell bought Intel's StrongARM/XScale division so they have the expertise to make an ARMv7 compatible CPU WITHOUT any ARM components. Legacy blackberries are made using Marvell's ARMv5 compatible CPU --- that has its lineage going back to Palm PDA's with Intel's StrongARM/XScale CPU.

Qualcomm hired/got/bought a whole IBM embedded PowerPC chip designing team when IBM decided to get out of the embedded PowerPC chip business --- so like Marvell --- Qualcomm has the expertise to make an ARMv7 compatible CPU WITHOUT any ARM components.

They do it this way because licensing cost per chip will be much lower. All you need is a team of silicon engineers, then give them hundreds of millions of dollars and 4-5 years.

[sosumi11]

For Apple or Android to switch to a true multitasking OS is almost an insurmountable task. They have to chuck everything and start over......get it.

Apple has been producing multi-tasking operating systems on laptops & desktops since May, 1991 (System 7). Multitasking on powerful, graphics-heavy, SMALL battery-powered devices require sophisticated power management software.

Why do you think laptops have a huge battery?

[samab]

Apple has been producing multi-tasking operating systems on laptops & desktops since May, 1991 (System 7). Multitasking on powerful, graphics-heavy, SMALL battery-powered devices require sophisticated power management software.

Why do you think laptops have a huge battery?

There are all kinds of multi-tasking.

QNX is going to be the ONLY mobile OS to multi-task the baseband radio functions.